NFWS,’ Denneny recalls, which he says
was, ‘a major, major change in the
ghter-only mindset of TOPGUN.
Transitioning from a ghter-only
mind-set to a bomb-dropping strike
ghter mindset in 1993 was a big deal.
‘Sometimes the TOPGUN F-14As were
used as ‘Blue Air’ ghters, ying as
ight leads with students on our wing.
That way, we could demonstrate early
in the syllabus how to do ight
leadership, radar work and decision-
making the right way, and then
become good wingmen and have the
students take over as leads. When the
students led the ight, we were good
wingmen, and then debriefed the
mission more e ectively when we got
back on the ground. When TOPGUN
went from being ‘Red Air’ only to ‘Red
Air’ and ‘Blue Air’ it made for a much
better learning environment for
the students.’and four F-14As.’ The unit had brie y
been equipped with an F-14B for six
months between October 1992 and
April 1993 — the only time the NFWS
would be assigned anything but an
A-model jet.
‘TOPGUN instructors were mainly
ying against the students as
adversaries at this point,’ explains
Denneny. ‘However, from 1994 we
redesigned the syllabus and changed
its name from the power projection
course to the training o cer class. As
instructors in the training o cer class,
we then ew as wingmen during many
of the sorties, ying alongside students
in F/A-18As and F-14As.
‘The four F-14As assigned to TOPGUN
when I joined were being used as
adversary [air-to-air] and strike [air-
to-ground] aircraft, or as ight leads
and wingmen, depending on the
requirements of the sortie being own.For example, if the sortie that day was
a division [four-ship] of friendly F/A-18
students ying against an unknown
enemy force, the F-14As might be used
as a ight of two to get high and fast and
simulate an enemy ghter. The F-14s
would force the student F/A-18 pilots
to get on timeline and get their missiles
o on time, or fear being outgunned by
the F-14s up in the thin air, where enemy
missile ranges are farther than at lower
altitudes. The Tomcat was used as a
wake-up call that you can’t just train at low
speeds at moderate altitudes. Sometimes
you had to get high and fast, and get
your missiles o early, or possibly get well
behind your timeline and shot down.
‘For other missions, the TOPGUN
Tomcats might have been part of a self-
escort strike, coming in o -axis either high
and fast or low and fast.
‘We also started dropping Mk76
training bombs during my time with theAbove: Clearly
painted to
represent a Su-27
‘Flanker’, F-14A
BuNo 159855 at
NAS Miramar in
December 1991.
US Navy/Bruce
Trombecky
Below: No
doubting what
this NFWS F-14A
was painted
for — the fi rst
of three ‘Asia
Minor’ Tomcats
in 1992. As well
as replicating
specifi c types
such as the
MiG-25 and 31,
the TOPGUN
instructors
mimicked Iranian
F-14s to teach
fl eet crews.
US Navy/Bruce
Trombeckyhttp://www.combataircraft.net // September 2018 53
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